My experiments in attaching computers, radio equipment, etc.,
to myself
in a manner quite similar to that
described by Bass[1],
culminated,
in a tetherless system that allowed me to roam about the
city, remotely controlling devices (such as electronic flash lamps planted
at various locations), staying in touch through email,
and a host of other things that one would normally associate
with a desktop computer powered from an AC outlet.
For example,
I currently wear my apparatus while shopping (e.g. so that my wife can remotely
look through my eyes and inspect fruits and vegetables, then email me
with comments).
Attitudes toward various forms of the
apparatus have significantly changed over the
last fifteen years. In particular, I feel that it is now possible to
wear the apparatus in many everyday situations
where it would have been completely out of place just a few years
ago (though it would certainly still be out of place in
a gambling casino or opium den).
Through a combination of changes in the apparatus
(its having become a little less obtrusive, thanks
to improvements in technology allowing for miniaturization),
and a changes in society (increase in society's acceptance of technology),
it is not nearly as strange as it was just a few years ago.

In early designs, the antennas were sewn into the clothing,
as were many of the components, but the eyeglasses are the one entity
that must diminish to make this apparatus be truly unobtrusive.

Although my original goal was to build a
reality-mediating
apparatus[2]
that would function as an artist's tool,
the apparatus became better known as the wearable wireless webcam, when,
with the advent of the World Wide Web, I began, in 1994, exploring
the use of my Web page as a means of sharing my day-to-day
visual experiences with others [5].
This system was interesting in the sense that, after some time, I
would forget that I was wearing it, and it would begin to function
as an extension of my own body.

The ideal reality-mediating apparatus
would be unobtrusive in two ways:

It would not appreciably obstruct the wearer's vision, or
otherwise be encumbering,
so that, for example, the wearer could play a competitive game
of volleyball wearing the apparatus. The real test of merit
would be that the apparatus could improve the player's game
(e.g. by highlighting the ball and estimating its trajectory).

It would not look unsightly. Ideally it would not be visible.
The real test for this criterion would be to wear it into a
gambling casino without it's being detected.

It is hoped that the apparatus could someday pass the
`volleyball test' and the `roulette test'.

The use of wearable, tetherless computer--mediated reality
for the handicapped has also been suggested[6].
The application to the handicapped suggests a form of the apparatus that
will operate under the sustained use paradigm.